25/01/2009 - 3rd. Sunday in Ordinary
Time - B
1st. Reading Job 3,1-5.10 Psalm 24 2nd. Reading 1Cor 7,29-31 Gospel Mk 1,14-20
Prayer for Christian Unity (last day) and Conversion of st. Paul
The way of prayer of Jesus was new to the disciples. He was only interested
in the joy of the Father, knowing that even for man there could be no other
joy greater than that of God. He was all for the Father. This was natural to
him, because his heart was not ruined by sin or egoism like ours. Before we
learn the way Jesus prays we need to let go of all the selfish ways of prayer
that we have learnt. Knowing that God exists, we never really cared to know
him and love him, but to take advantage of his power and knowledge. Hence our
prayer is more centered on our needs, unsatisfied demands, our desires, an awaiting
or pretence for solutions and satisfactions from God. We are tempted to go to
him with demands and requests, with convincing arguments, determined to convince
God that he needs to intervene and fulfill our will and our desires. Jesus himself
tells us to take distance from certain ways of prayer of which we are accustomed:"praying
then, do not waste words like the pagans, who believe that the more they say,
the more they are going to be heard" (Mt 6,7); "When you pray, do
not be like the hypocrites who love to pray standing in the synagogues and at
the corners of squares, to be seen by men" (Mt 6,5). God sees the heart
of man and he is able to understand his thoughts even if man won't be able to
find the right words to express himself. It is the heart that needs to present
itself to God. Let us understand that it is necessary to learn how to model
our heart in a way that is pleasing to God, either wise how are we to present
ourselves to him? We are not to try to impress God by choosing nice words to
pray, but to concentrate on being present before him. Many times we are forced
to look good in front of others, and so we think we are to do the same with
God in prayer! Jesus wants that our prayer time be a true encounter with God,
and so it is to be free from all preoccupations that are even expressed with
a hypocrite tune. Hypocrisy before God is an outdated card!
Today we hear three invitations for conversion. The first comes to us through
the prophet Jonah, who doesn't seem to be a sweet prophet. He in fact disobey
God at his first call, and instead of going to preach conversion to the people
of Nineveh, he ran away. He obeyed at the second call, as we have heard, even
though he was harboring in his heart more a vengeance than conversion of the
people. These believed and they were spared from the punish they deserved because
of their sins.
Jesus too invites us for conversion. What a difference between Jonah and Jesus!
The first did not enjoyed the conversion of the pagan city, the second, harvested
the fruits of his preaching: Simon, Andrew, James and John leave everything
to follow him and trusted themselves to him to change their lives. They were
truly converted, that is they welcomed the proclamation that the reign of God
is present and believed the news that God loves us, and that his love is the
person of Jesus. What does it mean to convert? The word used by the evangelist
mean to direct ones desires beyond what one can see, to go beyond what we normally
desire here on earth, to go beyond that which normally fills our heart. The
converted person starts to think and desire eternal life, a life lived with
God, immersed in his love and in his faithfulness towards humanity. The converted
person looks for someone who can accompany him on the new way taken, as the
four fishermen on the lake of Galilee did. They have followed in the footsteps
of Jesus and trusted themselves to be led into a new way, with eyes fixed on
him and a listening ear to his word.
St. Paul wants to help us to on our way of conversion. He points to the time
in which we are living as a running out: our focus is to go beyond the days
and years that are left. We are to live by putting the Lord at the center our
relationships with others, with things, and with ourselves. The relationships
with people we love, even those made holy by the Word of God, like those of
a couple, are to not be over our love for Jesus: it is from him that comes life
and it is he who fills and complete our love for one another. Our emotions of
joy and sorrow are not to dominate us: our heart is to belong always to the
Son of God and to find in his presence the reason of our joy, or in it's absence,
the aim of true suffering. All our things and every richness are not destined
for us but for those who really need them to live. We are truly converted when
we succeed to go beyond things, persons, and self, to come to the Father's heart!
Conversion is fundamental to know and love as children of God, and is also the
foundation for communion between ourselves and between all the other Christians
communities for whom today we pray that this becomes a real and visible as Jesus
prayed to the Father for his disciples!